The Reluctant Reaper

By: MaryJanice Davidson

Narrated by: Emily Lawrence

From bestselling author MaryJanice Davidson comes The Reluctant Reaper, a delightful romantasy—with a twist—featuring Death’s daughter.

What’s a death god to do …

A lot of twentysomethings might look forward to inheriting the family business. Amara Morrigan’s got zero interest in hers. The mantle she stands to assume is currently worn by her father, Death.

Amara’s childhood included helplessly watching as her best friend and her favorite teacher were taken away. She knows her dad didn’t do it on purpose … it was just their time. But Amara refuses to accept the job. It’s bad enough that she can sense when the final moment will be for anybody she meets—including her best (and only) friend, Gray. He knows who she is, and he’s cool with it. And though he’s the funniest, kindest, most understanding guy she’s ever met, she can’t allow him to get any closer (however much she might want to), because his moment is coming all too soon.

But now her father is dying. Ominous portents she can’t ignore pull Amara home to Minot, North Dakota, where Death is comatose—something that shouldn’t be possible. Thank all the gods that Gray refuses to be left behind. Amara’s mother is a mess, and Gray gives her somebody to cook for while the other death gods are gathering.

Alas, there’s not enough lefse in all of North Dakota to fix the situation. With their options waning, Amara agrees to (temporarily!) take up her father’s mantle—but she has to figure things out, and fast, because there is no way she’s doing this forever.

©2025 MaryJanice Davidson Alongi (P)2025 Blackstone Publishing

Death becomes her

This book was so good. The story had heart, was sad, and happy, and had all the feels. The book looked at death from a different point of view and while still approaching it with the reverence it deserves also looked at it (and life) with humor. This book lived up to all the MJD books have read and holds it own. I highly recommend this book if you want a book with enough levity to balance the emotions we all have around death.
The narrator did a wonderful job with all of the voices. It was a great read/listen!

Fun listen

Enjoyed the story. Enough details to visualize the scenes but not so much as I just wanted to skip to the next page.

Fun story, subpar performance

Maryjanice Davidson fans will love the story. The performance annoyed me though. She's got a perky voice, but the accents are all over the place. Scottish? Midwestern? Scandinavian? Who knows, they're all the same right? Maybe through in a tad of German for good luck. I'm talking some random kid in a school play bad.

The story is super fun though. The performance isn't too bad when she isn't trying to do an accent.

Super cute reaper mystery/romance!

Loved the narration, she really brought the spunky , attitude ridden personality of the main character! Gray and Amara were adorable in this book! I love how different they were but at the same time matched eachother perfectly! The romance may have a been a tiny tidbit but there friendship
Was on fire! The mystery was very well written and the ending was a twist I was not expecting! The magic and mayhem of this death family was exactly what I needed!

I would read the encyclopedia if she wrote it

As someone who knows Mary Janice Davidson‘s voice. I heard her throughout this entire book and I loved every second of it. I am a staunch supporter of the Queen Betsy books, and this book gave me that and more